6TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ELECTROMECHANICAL AND POWER SYSTEMS

October 4-6, 2007 - Chi in u, Rep.Moldova

THE USE OF HEAT PUMP SYSTEMS IN DISTRICT

HEATING

Anatolii JURAVLEOV, Mikhail SIT, Boris SIT, Olga POPONOVA,

Alexandr ZUBATAI, Dmitrii TIMCENCO
Institute of Power Engineering of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova,
ieasm@cc.acad.md

Abstract One of the schemes of heat pump system
usage for the decrease of return delivery water
temperature after district heating systems is considered.
Transcritical HPS cycles which use CO2 (R744) as a
working agent are examined as well.
Keywords: heat pump systems, transcritical cycle,
district heat systems.
1. INTRODUCTION
Introduction of integrated heat supply systems
consisting from CHP plants and distributed power
generation sources, for example, heat pumps systems,
is one of the ways to increase district heating systems
efficiency. The problems of heat pumps usage in
district heating systems for achieving delivery water
high temperature schedules are not covered wide
enough in corresponding literature.
This article outlines the scheme of the central heat
supply station (CHSS) with built-in heat pump
system with CO2 (R744) as the working agent.
Heat pump cycles for cold (winter) and transitional
(autumn, spring) periods of the heating season are
shown and the possibility to obtain heat pump
systems COP in 4.2…6.2 range during HPS
transcritical cycle work is demonstrated.
Results of the pay-back period estimation and net
present value based on methods described in [3, 4, 5]
for HPS usage in CHSS with the thermal power of
1.6 MWt are demonstrated as well.
2. HEAT PUMPS IN DISTRICT HEATING
This problem requires the additional research and
will be discussed in the next papers. When the
evaporator of HPS is installed at the outlet of the
delivery water of CHSS of district heating system
(DHS) and the gas cooler is installed at the mixing
DHS pipe line it becomes possible to decrease the
temperature schedule of heating. Water temperature
decrease on the inlet of DHS allows of trunk
pipelines capital intensity reducing (during their
maintenance or reconstruction).
The decrease of the return water temperature coming
to CHP plants leads to the reduction of the low-
potential heat used for CHP plant auxiliaries and it
becomes possible to produce additional electricity as
well.
The aggregate of mentioned factors brings to the
decrease of the fuel consumption which leads to the
increase of technical and economic characteristics of
DHS as a whole and improves the ecological
situation in the region because of the decrease of CO2
emissions and water losses from the cooling towers
to the atmosphere.
2.1. Heat pump scheme for district heating
Let’s consider the scheme of the central heat supply
station (CHSS) with built-in heat pump.
On the fig.1: 1- DHS control valve, 2- load (many-
storied buildings), 3 – gas cooler, 4- compressor, 5 –
HPS evaporator, 6 - CHSS circulation pump of, 7-
throttling valve, 8 – internal heat exchanger of HPS.
Heat pump system is connected to the DHS return
water pipe line which comes back to CHP plant.

The use of CO2 as a working agent for the heat

pumps is proved in [6, 7, 8] and a lot of other papers.
As a result of the fact that heating system power for
the winter and the transitional period differs in 2,5-3
times, only one HPS usage looks to be economically
inappropriate to ensure district heating and hot water-
supply. It seems to be more rational to ensure district
heating and hot water-supply using 2-3 HPS with the
decreased power, where each HPS operates at its
temperature of evaporation and its span of the sliding
temperature of the gas cooler.

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 Figure 1: Schematic of CHSS with built-in HPS.
Other part of return water flow which is being mixed
with direct water from power plant and is heated in
the HPS gas condenser (due to heat export out of
HPS).
The cooled flux of the return water on power plant
can enter in network heaters or in the steam turbine
condenser (in the main or in the built-in heat
exchanging bank).
2.1.1. Temperature charts
Equations which determine the dependence between
direct and return delivery water temperatures are
described in different manuals, see for example [9,
10], and are not cited here.
For the delivery water coming from the CHP plant
the temperature schedule 80/30 is applied, and for
DHS schedule is – 80/35. The specified temperature
of the ambient air is assumed to be equal to -160?,
and the temperature of the ambient air when heating
season is finishing is assumed to be 60?.
80/35 temperature chart usage is determined by the
fact that currently massive introduction of horizontal
double-pipe heat systems in multistoried buildings is
planned. In this case the temperature of the water
supplied is the same for all heating appliances.
2.1.2. Heat pump cycle
The transcritical cycle of heat pump in the h-p
Diagram for Carbon Dioxide (R744) (H [kJ/kg] –P
[MPa]), at the ambient temperature -90? is shown at
the Figure 2.
Figure 2: Thermodynamic cycle for the temperature
of the air -90C.
Parameters values of the working agent in points 1…6
of HPS (see, Fig.1) are shown in Table 1.
B of the T(0C) P(MPa) H(kJ/kg)
point
1 20 3,5 -45,5
2 90 9 -9,47
3 40 9 -162,87
4 37,2 9 -192,38
5 0 3,47 -192,38
6 0 3,47 -75,82
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Table: 1. Parameters and their values
The Coefficient of Performance of HPS is
[COP=4,26] (Recall that COP is defined as the
desired heat transferred divided by the work done on
the compressor).
The transcritical cycle of heat pump in the h-p
Diagram for Carbon Dioxide (R744) (H [kJ/kg] –P
[MPa]), at the ambient temperature 60? is shown at
the Figure 3.
Figure 3: Thermodynamic cycle for the temperature
of the air 60C.
Values of parameters of the working agent in points
1…6 of HPS (see, Fig.1) for this case are shown in
Table 2. In this case [COP=6,24].
P-h diagrams are made according to the equations
elaborated by R. Span and W. Wagner [11].
B of the T(0C) P(MPa) H(kJ/kg)
point
1 25 5,73 -81,87
2 60 9,0 -64,04
3 40 9,0 -162,87
4 37 9,0 -194,01
5 20 5,73 -194,57
6 20 5,73 -98,70
Table: 2. Parameters and their values
After the investigation of thermodynamic cycles
becomes evident that it is necessary to use the
adjustable compressor and heat-exchange equipment
with varying heat-exchange surface which changes
depending on the ambient temperature and the
temperatures of the direct and return delivery water or
the use of some HPS of the smaller output.
Modeling results show that with the decrease of the
ambient temperature the relationship between the
CHSS thermal power and HPS thermal power
increases from 0, 13 at the ambient temperature 60?
to 0, 39 at the ambient temperature -90?.
2.1.3. Economic efficiency of the use of HPS
One of the most important indexes of the investment
project is pay-back period and Net Present Value. We
assumed the bank rate to be equal 0.14, inflation
index equals 0.1.
Fig.4 Relationships between the pay-back period of HPS (heat pump station) and the price of K.W.H. of HPS
at the different COP of HPS.

Fig.5 Relationships between the NPV of HPS (heat pump station) and the price of K.W.H. of HPS at the
different COP of HPS.

231
Figure 4 shows the relationships between the pay-back
period of HPS (heat pump station) and the price of
K.W.H. of HPS at the different COP of HPS. Figure 5
shows relationships between the NPV of HPS (heat
pump station) from COP and the price of K.W.H. of
HPS.
4. CONCLUSIONS
The scheme of CHSS with built-in HPS which works
in the integrated heat supply system with the reduced
temperature chart of heat supply system is examined.
Carbon Dioxide is used as a working agent in HPS.
The transcritical cycles of HPS are examined in the
dependence of the ambient air temperature. The
directions of the efficient use of heat pump systems
on CHSS are proposed. The indices of technical and
economic efficiency of the use of HPS in CHSS are
determined.
Acknowledgments (if any) should appear as a
separate non-numbered section before the list of
references.
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232
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